THE SEVEN SLEEPERS 209 



carrying it in his hand. As he passed near the place 

 where it was caught, the mother bat appeared and 

 followed the boy for two squares, flying around him 

 and finally lighting on his breast, until the boy 

 allowed her to take charge of her little one. 



The bat has but few enemies. They are occasion- 

 ally caught by owls, probably taken unawares or 

 when hanging in some dark tree. In fact, virtually 

 the only enemies a bat has are fur-lice, which breed 

 upon them in enormous quantities. It is this mis- 

 fortune, and the fact that a bat has a strong rank 

 smell like that of a skunk, which keep it from being 

 popular as a pet. 



A friend of mine once, however, kept a little brown 

 bat, which had been drowned out from a tree by a 

 thunder-storm, for a long time under a sieve as a 

 pet. The bat became tame and would accept food, 

 and it was most interesting to see the deft, speedy 

 way in which he husked millers and other minute 

 insects, rejecting their wings, skinning their bodies, 

 and devouring the flesh only after it had been pre- 

 pared entirely to its liking. He would wash himself 

 with his tongue and his paw, like a cat, using the 

 little thumb-nail at the bend of his wing, and 

 stretching the rubbery membrane into all kinds of 

 shapes, until it seemed as if he would tear it in his 

 zeal for cleanliness. 



A bat always alights first by catching the little 

 hooks on its wings. As soon as it has a firm grip with 

 these, it at once turns over, head downward, and 

 hangs by the long, recurved nails of the hind feet, 



